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"Just use Linux" is much like "just ride a bike" or "just shop at a refill store" - accessing the non default option can be time consuming, expensive or unavailable locally. We need to recognise you need a certain degree of privilege to have the capacity to complicate your life voluntarily. We need to be trying to make the better, harder thing more accessible, not blaming people for not using it.
@afewbugs
People have been working on making Linux more available for decades now. It's at the stage where it's probably more intuitive, more usable and more friendly than Windows ever was.
Yes, it's different, and thus requires investment in familiarizing yourself with a different os, but it's no worse than going, say, from win10 to win11.
The "Linux is for nerds" meme has to die.
@Mux @afewbugs it's not about it being "for nerds" or not, it's simply less accessible because it's not The Default and it's not what people are already used to using
There's always gonna be an uphill struggle in cases like these, and blaming people for not essentially gambling away their time for something unknown to them just reinforces the idea that Linux is for pretentious nerds
@hazelnot
Neither is Microsoft's latest os, whatever that is. Every time I have to use one I'm completely confused because each version has a completely different interface.
Honestly Classic Gnome on Ubuntu would be so much more familiar to anyone who was there for the Win95/XP/Vista era than modern Windows interfaces.
People get used to what they're given. Don't underestimate people. They can learn a new interface pretty quickly. They have been doing so for decades.
@afewbugs
@Mux @hazelnot @afewbugs I teach tech, mostly to folks who tend to be older and less confident. The most common response to this proposal tends to be around the fact that, ironically, they trust big tech companies more, even if they hate them; if it's free - many assume - then it must also be worthless. They struggle on with a clunkier, more confusing Windows operating system because of this, when they could be using an OS more comparable to the one many of them use on their phone (essentially a free, open source OS with a simple software centre). I agree that we cannot underestimate the mass marketing of Microsoft that promotes their inferior product. I remember mentioning this challenge to folks who work on Linux, who told me "We don't have time or money to do publicity, we're busy working on creating a better OS." There's the rub!
@MediaActivist @Mux @hazelnot that's a fascinating point that the boomer generation in particular seems to trust corporations more than the alternative, which feels a bit perverse. My Mum for example prefers to eat supermarket vegetables and won't eat vegetables from the local farm box scheme or even the neighbour's garden because "you don't know how they grew them"! They do seem to believe corporate stuff has to meet certain standards of safety or something
@afewbugs
Well, tbf, Linux does come with NO GUARANTEE OF USABILITY OR FIT FOR PURPOSE, so there's that.
@MediaActivist @hazelnot
@MediaActivist @Mux @hazelnot @afewbugs maybe I'm inured to it, but successive updates to my Windows 11 machine have caused only brief issues, unite the irritations compounded by successive Android updates on my phone, which is steadily losing functionality (fingerprint login now disabled for some apps, return to home screen no longer works from recent apps view, ...)
@MediaActivist @Mux @hazelnot @afewbugs It might then be worth mentioning ZorinOS to people with that kind of mindset
@Mux @afewbugs it's the difference between "well I got a new computer cause the old one broke and now I gotta get used to this" and "I'm gonna install a new OS from scratch" when most people are terrified by the prospect of installing an operating system at all
There's a reason computer repair shops charge money to install Windows for you, cause most people can't do that
@hazelnot
You can buy computers pre-installed with Linux from trusted names like Dell and Lenovo. They're cheaper than their Windows counterparts.
The cost here is mostly in considering doing something new, which I get. This is not something to do when you don't have the time or spoons for it.
That said, if your computer broke down and you have to get a new one with an unfamiliar interface anyway, that might be the perfect time to switch.
@afewbugs
@TerryBTwo
If using a different office suite is too much (isn't everyone using Google docs by now?) you could just use Word on Linux.
@hazelnot @afewbugs
@TerryBTwo
Well, they can have it. I hear it works well.
@hazelnot @afewbugs
@hazelnot @Mux @afewbugs
I think (as a Linux user), it does still constantly cost energy because people around you will be expecting that of course you're using windows. It's not Linux not being good enough, but it's your employer giving you an excel document with functions that don't work if opened with calc and you're supposed to write your hours into that document.
Or their IT service who is supposed to help you create a remote desktop on your device so you can work from home and then telling you they don't know how to do that with Linux.
Or anybody giving you instructions on how to do something you don't now how to do saying stuff like "Open Word, go to the options menu and then..." and looking at you as if you were asking for something impossible and outrageous if you ask them "Do you know how I can do that with Libre Office?"
@kleines_z
Yeah, I Guess I'm lucky that my employer for the past decade (until this year :/) used Ubuntu as default for all work machines.
@hazelnot @afewbugs
